Page 102 of Oathbreaker

“You’re so mad you’re throwing things, huh?” I say. I put Kitty on the floor, and he runs over to Veronica, jumping on her bed. He sniffs her body and whines, and then he lies on the bed and looks at her. I pick the pillow off the floor and shut the door.

“It seemed like a good way to break the ice. I could hear you thinking from downstairs,” she says. She struggles to sit up more in the bed, and I take a moment to really take her in. Her swollen, shiny face seems flushed.

“Rons, what’s going on?” I’m so concerned. She’s advanced in her pregnancy, in the ninth month now, but not quite due.

“I’ve got a touch of pregnancy hypertension, maybe a lil’ preeclampsia,” she says with a sarcastic smile. She shrugs.

“The fuck?” I practically yell, rushing to go to the door to get her to the hospital immediately.

“Calm down,” she says. “Dr.Greene has been here every day giving me ultrasounds and checking my urine, thanks to that oaf you call a boyfriend.” She rolls her eyes but doesn’t look at all upset. If anything, she seems relieved.

“What’s going on, Rons?” The urge to cry comes to me all at once. She’s been sick, struggling, and I haven’t been here. “Where is James?”

Veronica stares straight ahead, not looking at me or answering the question. Then she waves her hand in the air as if the inquiry were unimportant.

I dip my chin, breathing deeply. “Veronica, I’m sorry,” I say. I don’t want to cry but feel the tears welling up anyway. “I have been so angry and hurt, and I’ve taken it out on you. You deserved none of the poison I spewed at you that day.”

She nods her head at me. “Thank you for apologizing,” she says. It’s still stiff.

“I’m ready to get healthy again. To start,” I search for a word, “rebuilding from here. I should allow in more support, not less, from the people who care about me. I want to be a good sister and friend again.” Her eyes turn misty, but she covers the shift in her expression by sipping from her oversized water jug.

I slump down onto the end of her bed. “Please forgive me, Rons.” She looks at me for a moment, her glossy face blank. Then she reaches out her hand to me. I grab it.

“We’re sisters. We say stupid shit, and then we make up. You get a pass,” she says. “This time.” She gives me a significant look.

“Deal,” I say. “What do you need?” I start moving around the room. It’s mostly clean and orderly. Hunter—or James?—has someone keeping the room up.

“Well, first, I need you to help me out of the bed,” she says with a beleaguered sigh.

“Where do you need to go?” I’m by her side in a blink.

“Well,” she says with a slight chuckle. “To the hospital. I’m ninety-seven percent sure my water is broken.”

I help shift her to sitting and notice the giant wet spot beneath her ass.

“Holy shit, we’re having a baby!” I scream. Fifteen hulking guards surround us with guns drawn in the moments following my yell.

“Move, assholes, my niece is about to be born!” Everyone spins into action.

Veronica’s labor ended up being complicated. Her hypertension started to turn into pre-eclampsia, but because Dr.Greene had been monitoring her urine for protein, she was able to see the sharp uptick that noted that she needed to be admitted to Labor and Delivery.

She coincidentally called Veronica to go in for possible induction while we were in the car. Veronica said, “Way ahead of you, Doc. Looks like I’m in labor now.”

I sent Kitty home with Ella, and we rushed to the hospital.

We, being me, Veronica, Rio, and the security guards who stood outside Veronica’s door.

Unfortunately, her other labs weren’t as awesome, so they had to start her on IV anti-hypertensives and a magnesium drip. I held her hand through all of it. Even though she was thirty-seven weeks, so technically early term, the doctors gave her a steroid shot in her butt to help the baby’s lungs.

Veronica labored for eighteen hours, and then my niece was born.

We snuggle up in her hospital bed together two days after the baby’s birth. The doctors are keeping her in longer to make sure her pre-eclampsia resolves, but the baby took to being Earth-side like a champ. It’s incredible—Veronica’s lost what looks like twenty pounds just in water weight overnight.

“Have you decided on a name, Rons?” The baby is in Veronica’s lap, sleeping peacefully, with her mouth moving as if she were sucking milk.

Veronica hums softly. “Summer,” she eventually says. “Gotta keep the seasonal theme in the family,” she says.

Tears fall, shock at the meaning of the gesture stunning me. “Oh, Veronica...” I say, tilting my head to rest on hers. Taking in a slow, deep breath, I get up from the bed to place Summer in her bedside bassinet.

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